Chef Erik Cosselmon adds grape leaves to the red snapper to keep it from sticking to the grill.

Chef Erik Cosselmon adds grape leaves to the red snapper to keep it from sticking to the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Chef Erik Cosselmon squeezes lemon juice on the fish while grilling.

Chef Erik Cosselmon squeezes lemon juice on the fish while grilling.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Chef Erik Cosselmon stuffs lemon and herbs inside as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Chef Erik Cosselmon stuffs lemon and herbs inside as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Erik Cosselmon rinses the fish after descaling and removing the gills as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Erik Cosselmon rinses the fish after descaling and removing the gills as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Chef Erik Cosselmon scores the sides of the fish with a knife as he prepares it for the grill.

Chef Erik Cosselmon scores the sides of the fish with a knife as he prepares it for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Erik Cosselmon scraps off scales with a fork as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Erik Cosselmon scraps off scales with a fork as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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A whole red snapper is laid out for chef Erik Cosselmon to prepare it for the grill.

A whole red snapper is laid out for chef Erik Cosselmon to prepare it for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Chef Erik Cosselmon drizzles olive oil over a red snapper as he seasons it for the grill.

Chef Erik Cosselmon drizzles olive oil over a red snapper as he seasons it for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Chef Erik Cosselmon sprinkles on salt as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Chef Erik Cosselmon sprinkles on salt as he prepares a whole red snapper for the grill.

Photo: Michael Short / Michael Short / The Chronicle

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Fish for compliments: Kokkari chef’s deep secrets for grilling

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If you want good advice on how to grill a whole fish, ask a chef who has done it a few times. Even better, a few thousand. In the Bay Area, that would be Erik Cosselmon, executive chef at Kokkari, the San Francisco Greek restaurant that serves 3,000 grilled whole fish each month.

“Fish is so much better cooked on the bone,” says Cosselmon, “and you know what you’re getting. If you buy it filleted and portioned — well, halibut is sometimes not halibut.”

You might imagine that a whole grilled fish is the last thing Cosselmon wants when he cooks at home for his wife and two children. But the chef says he prepares it often, in part because he has such ready access to top-notch fish. (The restaurant’s seafood bill is about $2,500 a day.) Another reason: “With whole fish you get the head and the collar,” says the chef, “and the collar is the best part.”

Cosselmon recently demonstrated his grilling prowess with a whole gulf snapper on his backyard grill in San Francisco. “When you can get whole fish, practice on your family,” suggests the chef, “so you have confidence for guests.”

•The best fish for grilling are relatively small (preferably under 4 pounds), firm-fleshed and not too lean. The fish needs to fit on your grill, so a whole salmon is not an option for most home cooks.

•A fish larger than 3 or 4 pounds is challenging to cook evenly; it tends to burn outside before the thick interior is fully cooked.

•As for yield, a 1-pound branzino makes a generous serving for one. A slightly larger branzino could serve two. A 3-pound snapper should serve four people easily. The larger the head in relation to the body, the lower the yield.

•To serve six to eight people, Kokkari chef Erik Cosselmon recommends cooking two smaller fish rather than one large one.

•Oily fish like mackerel, sardines and pompano are the most grill-friendly. West Coast soles are too delicate and Pacific rockfish too lean and unevenly thick. A rockfish tends to overcook in some parts before it’s fully cooked throughout.

•Cosselmon’s grilling favorites include wild red snappers from the Gulf of Mexico, farmed branzino (Mediterranean sea bass) and farmed Arctic char. If you do want to grill whole sole, put it in an oiled pan and put the pan on the grill.

•Buy whole fish the day you plan to cook it. If you must keep it for more than a day, refrigerate it in a plastic bag, and place that bag inside another bag with frozen gel packs.

Kokkari Dressing

Makes about ½ cup

You can make the dressing several hours ahead, but for best flavor, whisk the lemon juice in just before serving. Adapted from “Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors,” by Erik Cosselmon and Janet Fletcher (Chronicle Books, 2010).

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons brined or salted capers, rinsed and minced

2 teaspoons minced shallot

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced Italian parsley

½ teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

¼ teaspoon dried Greek oregano, finely crumbled

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients. (If made ahead, whisk in lemon juice just before serving.)

Rinse the cavity and pull or cut out any membranes, soft tissue and congealed blood.

Run a finger along the skin from the tail to the head to probe for any sharp scales that still may be on the fish, paying special attention to the areas around the cheeks and fins. Using the tines of a fork, scrape from tail to head and the scales should come off easily. Sardine and anchovy scales can usually be rubbed off with your fingers, and mackerel and Arctic char typically have fine scales that don’t need removing. Rinse the fish and pat dry with paper towels to catch any loose scales.

Score the flesh

“Scoring makes the fish easier to fillet after cooking,” says Cosselmon, “and it evens out the cooking by opening up the flesh at the thickest part. It also makes it easier to see when it’s done.”

To score, lay the fish on a work surface. With a chef’s knife, make one lengthwise slit down the middle of each side, from the gill to the tail, piercing all the way to the bone.

Rub the fish all over with extra virgin olive oil to keep it from sticking to the grill. Season generously inside and out with sea salt and lightly with freshly ground black pepper. Tuck a thick slice of lemon and sprigs of fresh oregano, thyme or parsley into the cavity.

Prepare

the grill

Charcoal grill: Cosselmon likes lump mesquite charcoal because it produces a hotter fire than briquettes, but either type of fuel works. Mound the charcoal on one side of the grill, so that half of the grate has no charcoal underneath. With all vents open, light the charcoal and let it burn down until covered with gray ash. Stoke the coals once or twice, stirring them up to prod the fire and keep it lively. It should take about 30 minutes for the coals to become ready for grilling.

Put the grate in place and let it preheat thoroughly. When the grate is hot, scrub it clean with a wire brush. (Residue comes off more easily when the grate is hot.) Rub the grate with the cut side of a half-lemon to clean it further.

Cosselmon uses his hand to judge when the fire is ready. If he can’t hold it a few inches above the grate for more than a few seconds, the fire is hot enough.

Gas grill: Turn all burners to high and preheat the grill to 500 degrees with the lid down. Clean the grate as directed for charcoal grilling.

Cook the fish

If you are concerned about the fish sticking to the grill (more likely with thin-skinned fish), place some grape leaves (fresh or jarred), fig leaves or fennel fronds on the upper surface of the fish, overlapping them slightly. Set the fish on the grate, leaves down. Before turning the fish, arrange more leaves on the top in the same fashion, then flip.

If cooking over charcoal, place the fish on the grate so that it is near but not directly over the coals. Do not cover the grill.

If cooking over gas, place the fish on the grate directly over the front burner. Turn the front burner down to medium and cover the grill.

Once you place the fish on the charcoal grill, stand back and don’t fuss with it. If you think it’s cooking too slowly or quickly, rotate the grate, not the fish.

“The mistake people make is that they try to turn the fish too early and they leave skin on the grill,” says the chef. “I even have to train my cooks on this.”

Grill on one side until the flesh inside is mostly white with just a touch of pink at the backbone.

Cosselmon uses a carving fork, a two-pronged fork with long tines, to peek into the cavity and check for progress. He also uses the fork to gently lift the fish and check that the skin is not charring too fast. Unlike a metal spatula, which may tear the skin when you try to slide it between the fish and the grate, the fork can get under the rails of the grate and loosen the fish to prepare it for flipping.

Flip the fish and cook on the second side until the flesh is white at the backbone. Use a fork to probe the scored area, too, to make sure the flesh is white at the bone. A 3-pound snapper will take about 30 minutes.

Bring the serving platter to the grill. Squeeze some lemon over the fish, then transfer the fish to the platter. Put some lemon halves cut side down on the grill to warm while you fillet the fish.

Fillet the fish

Using a table knife and spoon, cut away and remove the fins. You can discard them, although Cosselmon puts these bony bits aside for himself.

“The best meat is around the belly fin,” he confides, “but you have to be patient. My mother-in-law fights me for it.”

Working from head to tail and following the lengthwise score, slide the flesh off the bone. Flip the top fillet so the skin side is down. Lift the skeleton from the tail end and discard it. You can leave the head in place or remove it with the skeleton.

Pick out and discard any visible bones and the lemon and herbs from the cavity. Tap the flesh with the edge of a table knife; if there are buried bones, you should hear them. Even with vigilance, you are likely to miss some tiny pinbones, so warn diners to watch for them.

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